The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States on Wednesday night arrested four men for an alleged plot to bomb a New York synagogue and Jewish community center.
According to a report available on New York Daily News website, the men also wanted to use surface-to-air missiles to shoot down U.S. military planes near Stewart Air National Guard Base.
The four men were arrested after a year long investigation that began when an informant connected to a mosque in Newburg, a city along the Hudson River, said some militants wanted to buy explosives, says the report.
FBI agents posing as militants sold them what they thought were C-4 explosives and a plane-downing Stinger missile.
The weaponry was all fake, says the report.
The men were arrested as they planted fake bombs in front of the Riverdale Temple in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs in New York City, and under cars parked in front of the synagogue.
They also allegedly planned to blow up a second synagogue, the Riverdale Jewish Center at West 237th Street and Independence Avenue.
Witnesses were cited as saying that a New York Police Department vehicle blocked a black SUV outside the temple and then officers broke in the windows and handcuffed the four men inside the car.
All four men were reportedly born in the United States.
Among the arrestees was alleged ringleader James Cromitie, the son of an Afghan immigrant and his wife.
Cromitie served a long stretch in prison in the past.
Alleged followers David Williams, Onta Williams and Leguerre Payen were arrested with him.
Sources said the three were converted to Islam in the jail.
"This shows the real risks we face from homegrown terror and jailhouse converts, and the need for constant vigilance," Representative of New York Pete King was cited as saying.
The four alleged terrorists are expected to be arraigned Thursday in White Plains federal court.
According to the report, police are meeting with elected officials in Riverdale to discuss relevant issues.
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City and also the third-most-densely-populated county in the United States. Wikipedia cites Jewish organizations as saying that 592,185 Jews lived in the Bronx in 1937, about 43.9 percent of the borough's population at the time, while in 2002, only about 45,000did. However, many synagogues still stand in the Bronx, but most have been converted to other uses.
Source:Xinhua
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